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310 ON THE EISE, PROGRESS, ETC.in Europe, as in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, but even beyond the ocean, in America, where theseeds of new constitutions were sown, and are now in theperfection of their growth.To trace this out, however, isthe province of history ;I conceive that I havefor my part,sufficiently proved the proposition from which I set out,and to which I return : viz. That by those who follow thebanners of philosophy, the day, which we are now celebrating, must be accounted a festival a festival dedicated toevents which have procured us that without which there canbe no philosophy, and no true enjoyment of " life Theright of thinking as we will, and of speaking as we think"RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRACTICAL INFLUENCEOF POLITICAL THEORIES,AND ON THEPRESERVATION OF MONARCHICAL PRINCIPLESIN MODERN EUROPE.IF we except the last ten years of the past century from ourreview, we shall find that the states which composed thepolitical system of modern Europe, were constituted withoutany reference to general theory; they arose for the mostpart out of the feudal system, and gradually accommodatedthemselves to the circumstances which new times and newevents produced. It would therefore be idle to expect thatany, even the most perfect of them, should correspond withan abstract theory of government. The spread of intellectual acquirements, however, produced in several of thesestates an attention to political reasonings, and these in turnled to speculative systems, and schemes of new constitutions.The influence of the latter began, long before the disturbances of our own day, to exercise a political influence, andthis at kst became so great that it has been customary to